Abbott Laboratories continues to push its presence in the cardiovascular market with offerings for the left atrial appendage (LAA) closure and transcatheter aortic valve implant (TAVI) markets, both of which generated affirmative data presented at this year’s edition of the annual meeting of Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT 2023) in Washington.
Abk Biomedical Inc. has completed an oversubscribed $30 million series C funding round to support IDE approval for Eye90 microspheres designed to improve outcomes for patients with liver cancer. The departure point for the technology’s development is U.S. FDA-cleared Y90 technology such as Boston Scientific’s Therasphere and Sir-Spheres developed by Sydney, Australia-based Sirtex Medical Ltd. “They are the only radioembolization microspheres on the market and that is the clinical space in which we will be submitting our IDE application,” Abk chief business officer Gary Donofrio told BioWorld. “Hopefully we’ll get approvals for the pivotal study and eventually to market in that space. It’s going to be great to be able to innovate and improve on what’s already been done there.”
Seven new U.S. medtechs are poised to make a splash in the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system disorders thanks to funding under a new program within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint for Neuroscience Research called Blueprint Medtech.
Boston Scientific Corp. offered $523 million in cash for 65% of Acotec Scientific Holdings Ltd., a manufacturer of vascular intervention devices. The acquisition would significantly expand Boston Scientific’s presence in China, which the company expects to account for about 25% of the global med-tech market by the end of the decade. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to shareholder approval. The offer price of HK$20 or US$2.57 per share represents a premium of more than 31% over its close on Friday, Acotec reported.
The U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has expanded its endorsement for the Greenlight XPS system for benign prostatic hyperplasia to no longer exclude patients deemed at high risk for hemorrhage, a decision that may boost utilization and thus sales of the XPS.
While other large med-tech companies are slimming their portfolios, Boston Scientific Corp. plans to beef its up considerably with the acquisition of Apollo Endosurgery Inc. for $10 per share for the 41.7 million shares outstanding or $417 million. Including the debt assumed, the all-cash deal has an enterprise value of $615 million. The $10 per share price represents a 67% premium to the Nov. 28, 2022, $6 close for Apollo shares. The companies expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2023.
In an interview with BioWorld, Ceros Financial Services CEO Mark Goldwasser predicted significant changes in the financing market for med-tech companies in the coming year. While special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deals are not anticipated to return to 2022 levels, Goldwasser expects “we’re going to see a lot of transactions out of big strategics” and a rally in the equity market in the first half of 2023.
The 2022 Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) medical meeting, which concluded on Nov. 3 in Las Vegas, focused on advances in interventional cardiology and devices to improve vascular health with the expected studies comparing drug-eluting balloons, new stents and less invasive procedures. One Boston Scientific Corp. presentation put the rest into context, however, with one of the most critical advances in cardiology, enrollment in the Drug-Eluting Registry: Real World Treatment of Lesions in the Peripheral Vasculature (ELEGANCE) registry.
The burden of peripheral artery disease is enormous, but clinicians are often stuck deciding whether to treat their patients with critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) by endovascular means rather than conventional bypass surgery.
Boston Scientific Corp. and Abbott Laboratories continue to parry over clinical trials comparing the latter’s Amplatzer Amulet with Boston Scientific’s Watchman in sealing the heart’s left atrial appendage (LAA) to prevent ischemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (Afib). In one of five presentations at the 34th Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics annual scientific symposium in Boston in mid-September, Abbott said device-related thrombosis or peri-device leak more frequently preceded strokes in patients with Watchman compared to those with Abbott’s Amplatzer Amulet device.
